Starting Slowly

STARTING SLOWLY
1.1 When we got on our bikes each morning on the racetrack, the first thing we did, after the mechanics had checked and refueled our machines, was go for a slow tour of the track. Riding slowly we had the opportunity to get to know ourselves as well as the bike as well as the track. Warming up we slowly expanded our consciousness outwards to the horizon.
1.2 I used to start running the same way, starting of slowly. Giving my body a chance to warm up, to wake up. I’d start of jogging slower than some people walk but by doing so I gave my whole body a chance to wake up, bit by bit, so that each bit woke up to itself and to it its connection with its neighbors so that my body as a whole could work well together.
1.3 I learned to do the same thing when I was skating. Starting of slow, I’d take my time, gliding from skate to skate but not really pushing, just feeling my body, the action I was doing. Eventually I’d get a signal, some sort of okay from my body, then I’d start to sink my weight down and use it to push through each skate, like my whole body was working together so that skating was easy and fun.
1.4 When we change activities, for example from talking to riding motorbikes, or from studying to exercising, we are taking part in a new idea and going slowly to begin with is a chance for all of those parts to wake up to the change and for the parts of our body to stay connected during it.
1.5 Running my first half marathon, I started off at the back of the pack taking nearly the first half of the race to warm up, slowly increasing my speed. As I did so I started to overtake more and more people right till the very end of the race. I could have kept on going I felt so good.
1.6 Starting slowly our consciousness gradually radiates outwards from our center, feeling each part of ourselves, each part of ourselves awake to what we are doing. Each part of ourselves able to take part and working with every other part so that our whole body together works well together. Starting of slowly running or skating or doing yoga, that is when I can seemingly go on forever because I am smoothly opening to the way ahead by becoming conscious of all the parts of myself and all the connections between them.
1.7 Warming up, we slowly connect to everything we can, slowly and steadily pushing the boundaries of our consciousness outwards. Warming up we smoothly handle change waking up to all that is around us and all that is within us. And with our consciousness radiating outwards, one of the things we keep our minds on is the point of what we are trying to do.
1.8 On that motorcycling riders course I was on an instructor had commented that I wasn’t preparing early enough for each corner. If I began to prepare as soon as I saw a corner I could make the transition smooth, following a nice line from where I was to where I wanted to be so that I was ready for the corner when I got to it. Warming up is the same, a smooth and gradual change that gets us ready for what’s coming up.
1.9 Eventually we get to a point where we don’t need to warm up quite so much because we are aware of what we are doing all of the time.